MarkHowellLive.com

Could a Few Coaching Calls Have a Huge Impact?

Mark Howell — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:50:49 +0000

Wondering how to take your small group ministry to the next level? I know you’re working on it…because you’re a regular here at MarkHowellLive.com. And that really is the essence of my vision for this blog. To help breakthroughs happen on a regular basis; to do everything I can to help more people get connected in a group where they can be loved and included, forgiven and challenged, held accountable and immersed in grace.

That’s my dream.

And here’s what I know. Some of you are reading and talking about what you’re reading…and that’s all you need to make it happen. And that’s why there are almost 900 articles here.

And then there are some of you that could benefit from a coaching call or two. You could REALLY benefit! And at $75 an hour (or 5 one hour calls for $350), you’d be crazy not to schedule it. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to offer this price…but that’s what it is now.

It’s worth it. It will have an impact. You can find out how it works and even schedule a call right here.

Need a reference? Here’s just a few. Want to see some of the churches I’ve helped? You can see that right here.

Bottom line…I want to help you break through some barriers. It’s easy to get started. You can schedule right here.

What’s My Motivation?

Mark Howell — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:50:57 +0000

A few weeks ago I found myself in a conversation with several other small group pastors. We were all sharing our strategy for leader recruitment and training. It was a passionate exchange. Not quite no-holds barred…but close.

The first guy shared a very detailed, very structured approach designed to recruit and train the highest caliber candidates. Lots of hoops. The highest standards. It was an account delivered with great confidence.

There was the briefest of pauses and then another of the guys in the circle turned to me and said, “Mark, your strategy is pretty different. Why don’t you take a minute and describe the way you recruit and develop leaders.”

“Well,” I started, “our strategies couldn’t possibly be more different.” It was quite a moment. It was a great next few minutes (it was the moment that prompted Leader Qualifications: Raising the Bar, Lowering the Bar, or Open Bar).

I have to say, I got a little worked up. I feel that strongly about the issue. Why? What’s the big deal?

For me, it’s a serious thing because of what I believe hangs in the balance. See, I believe that unconnected people are always one tough thing away from not being around. An illness. A difficult marriage or divorce. The loss of a job. A child making bad decisions. It’s why I wrote The Titanic, Lifeboat 14, and Your Lobby.

One tough thing. I know that and you do too. Unconnected people don’t call the church when tough things happen. They stop coming. They abruptly disappear.

Recruiting leaders and starting groups, connecting unconnected people is about rescuing some who are one tough thing away from not being around. It’s my motivation. It’s the foundation of what I’m about. It’s a life-threatening situation. There’s no time to lose. And I will not be stopped. Not by hoops. Not by high standards. And not by the pursuit of problem-free.

Want do you think? Have a question? Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.

FAQ: How Can I Tell My Pastor about This?

Mark Howell — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:50:28 +0000

This is truly a frequently asked question (FAQ). Usually in response to a post that I’ve written to be passed on to senior pastors, I’ll get a reply that is a little cryptic, but essentially says, “My pastor doesn’t understand this truth about small groups. It’s limiting our small group ministry. How can I tell him this?”

Can I tell you something? The main reason I write the posts that prompt that response is to motivate you to talk with your pastor about it.

Seriously.

Is it easy? Nope.

Is there another way to get done what needs to get done without talking with your pastor? Nope. Certain things cannot be delegated and the senior pastor’s role as small group champion is one of them (Note: Not everyone agrees with this. See my review of Small Groups, Big Impact for more information).

Is there a good way to start the conversation? Maybe. It really depends on the relationship that you have with your senior pastor.

Here’s my best shot at a formula for conversation:

Check your own heart any below-the-waterline motivation, any junk that shouldn’t be there. Only proceed if you can honestly say that your only motivation is helping your senior pastor succeed at his mission.
Pray for wisdom. Pray for the right heart. Pray for the purest motivation.
Read the articles below to get a good feel for the conversation. Do you need to read them all? No…but you need to know that although the theme is similar in all of them, there may be a subtle difference in one that makes it easier.
Choose one or two to pass along to your pastor. You might attach a note that says something like, “What do you think about this?” Or, depending on your relationship with the pastor, you might even write, “I’d like to talk with you about this article.” Your objective is to schedule a meaningful opportunity for conversation.
Stay focused on the real goal: helping your pastor accomplish his mission. Don’t forget that. Ever.

Want do you think? Have a question? Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Building a Life-Changing Small Group Ministry: Great New Addition to the Groups that Grow Series

Mark Howell — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:50:19 +0000

Looking for real help in designing and building a dynamic small group ministry? I just finished looking over a new book that I think you’re going to want to see. Building a Life-Changing Small Group Ministry is an important addition to the collection of resources produced by Bill Donahue and his team of former Willow Creek compadres…and it is very good.

In my mind there are several things to love about Building a Life-Changing Small Group Ministry. First, it begins and ends with some very good instruction on the possibility of change, how to break through barriers preventing change and strategic planning. The introduction gives “perspective about present reality and the prospects of change.” This is a very helpful way to begin and will really serve the change effort in many churches. The final two chapters are very pragmatic and instructive. Whether you’re just beginning the process of building a small group ministry or well along the way, this is invaluable materials.

Next, I think you’re going to find the design of the book very helpful for team development. Every chapter includes a set of built-in “process time” exercises that could easily form the basis for team involvement in the formation of a small group ministry.

The chapter on developing and implementing a coaching structure will get a lot of use by many, many churches. Whether you’re a long way down this road or just gathering the strength to try again, this is a great chapter and packed with the stuff that will help you on your way.

Although it may hit you differently, I found the chapter on measuring progress very helpful. The ten page assessment will help your team evaluate progress in a number of important areas:

Ministry Strategy
Point Leadership
Support Structures
Leadership Development
Connection Strategy
Range of Group Experiences
Multiplying Group Life

In addition to a comprehensive set of questions, instruction on how to optimize the assessment has tremendous potential. This section alone is worth the price of the book.

In addition to everything else, I also love the fact that Building a Life-Changing Small Group Ministry has a companion DVD-driven resource: Equipping Life Changing Leaders, further enhancing the potential for this resource to truly equip and guide teams that are entrusted with the process of building (or restructuring) a small group ministry. This is a more than welcome addition to the newly revised series of great resources. I really found this guide helpful and I think you will too!

How to Engage Everyone: Notes and Resources

Mark Howell — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:50:58 +0000

I had the great privilege yesterday to give a talk for the Small Group Network on the subject of Engaging Everyone (in a church-wide campaign). Very fun working through the 5 steps of engaging everyone and a really, really important topic. If you missed it, I’ve included a link to the recording right here.

Here are some additional resources that will help you as you wrestle with this topic:

Step One: Define Everyone. I believe that step one is to accurately define everyone. While many churches think in terms of their average adult worship attendance, I really believe it is much more accurate to think in terms of your Easter adult attendance. If you’re like most churches the Easter number demonstrates what happens on a weekend when everyone is there at the same time.

The 7 Numbers that Matter Most in Small Group Ministry

Step Two: Start Early. Another big, big idea. If you want to engage everyone you need to get started as early as you can. If you’re doing a church-wide campaign in late September, it’s a good idea to be having worship planning meetings, calendar coordination meetings, and negotiating with any competing ministries to keep the promotion decks clear.

Step Three: Involve Everyone. This is another super important aspect to engaging everyone. Including the children’s ministry and the student ministry is an important part of the most successful church-wide campaigns. A good percentage of the off-the-shelf campaigns available include kids and teens material (estimating 20%). Even when they don’t, coordinating with your children’s and student ministries can add a very worthwhile element to the mix. Engaging everyone in one conversation for six weeks is very unifying.

Step Four: Leverage Influence. Getting your senior pastor involved is an important beginning, but it is just the beginning. Staff, elders and deacons, key congregational leaders and other people of influence all play a part in engaging everyone. Working hard to include key influencers in significant roles goes a long way in assuring a successful campaign.

Step Five: Don’t Stop. The lesson of Jim Collins’ flywheel effect is that it takes a lot of energy to get the flywheel turning and it takes even more to keep it turning. Once it’s turning, you need to do everything you can to keep it turning. Engaging everyone is a relentless and tireless effort. It pays off big-time. Once you have momentum do not stop!

If you missed my talk on GroupTalk yesterday, you can listen in right here. It’s actually part of a four part series and you’ll be able to listen to all four parts right here.

Want Downloadable Curriculum? Don’t Miss Zondervan’s Latest Move

Mark Howell — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:50:06 +0000

Have you seen this? As powerful as DVD-driven curriculum can be, what if you could download it?

I like this newest solution from Zondervan and CBD.com. With over 20 of their most popular titles (including Tim Keller’s The Reason for God, Craig Groeschel’s WEiRD, and Max Lucado’s God’s Story, Your Story), this is looking like a great resource.

Each study is made up of individual sessions and each session offers a downloadable PDF and a downloadable MP4 video that can be purchased separately. You can also buy all the video sessions together, or a complete kit which includes all the video sessions plus group use PDF participant’s guides. The group use PDF covers each of the video sessions and can be reproduced for all the members of your group.

The pricing works pretty well, too. Video downloads at $2.99 per session and group use PDFs at $4.99 make this an interesting product option. Whether you’re looking for individual sessions or entire studies, I think you’ll want to take a look at it.

New from J.D. Greear: Presence | Overwhelmed by God

Mark Howell — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:50:45 +0000

Looking a challenging study? Need something that will take your group members into deeper waters? New from J.D. Greear and Lifeway’s Platform series, Presence: Overwhelmed by God delivers. Greear, senior pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh/Durham, NC, is widely recognized as one of America’s most gifted communicators. It definitely shows on this six session, DVD-driven study.

With Exodus 32-34 as a scriptural context, Presence: Overwhelmed by God examines six facets of God’s presence. Each of the sessions is taken from a weekend message series at The Summit Church. A no-frills approach, the segments are just the right length. At 10 to 12 minutes, Greear’s style is very compelling and will easily hold group members’ attention. Great content, powerful delivery, a quick wit and a great sense of humor make these segments both inspiring and very engaging.

The member book is designed to offer a great experience. The video setup and viewer guide will give your members a way to retain what they hear and learn. The Biblical Background section along with the scriptures used in the session make it easy for everyone to participate. The small group questions are well thought out and will take your members deep into the concept and every session includes a challenge to help members practice what they’ve learned. In addition, a simple set of leader’s note precede each section.

Like Greear’s earlier study, Gospel Revolution (one of the most popular curriculum reviews of 2011), I’m thinking this is going to be a very popular study. I really liked it. And I’m pretty sure you’ll be right there with me!

You can order it from Amazon right here. Prefer to buy from Lifeway? You can order your copies right here.

New from IVP Connect: Field Guide for Small Group Leaders

Mark Howell — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:50:52 +0000

There are books about small group ministry that are written by theorists and there are books assembled by practitioners. Every once in a while there is a book written by a writer who is also a practitioner. Sam O’Neal’s Field Guide for Small Group Leaders: Setting the Tone, Accommodating Learning Styles, and More is a great example of this third category. A practitioner in the sense that he has led small groups for a number of years, Sam also invested five years as the managing editor of smallgroups.com before moving on to a new position with Lifeway.

No stranger to groups, Sam’s focus for the Field Guide is “a group leader’s responsibility to prepare for and lead small group meetings (p. 14).” A little further along, he defines the primary role of a small group leader as preparing “for small group meetings, both short-term and long-term, and leads his or her group members through the essential activities of those meetings in submission to the Holy Spirit (p. 32).” While my sense of the role of a small group leader includes what happens in the meeting but isn’t limited to the meeting, I still think there is so much here that will help group leaders prepare for the meeting. I also really like Sam’s coverage of a wide variety of angles.

Creating Environments

Hospitality: Preparation for the meeting is much more than getting ready to facilitate. Hospitality gets a very thorough treatment and covers everything from performing chores in preparation, praying for the meeting, and incorporating elements of fun.

Learning Styles: Since learning styles influence how group members learn, how group leaders lead, as well as group dynamics. There are some excellent ideas in this chapter and will really serve to open the eyes of leaders on this important topic.

Ice-Breakers and Learning Activities: There have been several good resources on the subject of icebreakers over the years. What I like about this section is that it explores the concept and provides some very good guidance in developing and using the technique.

Crafting Great Discussion Questions: One of the things I appreciate most about the Field Guide for Small Group Leaders is that it doesn’t assume that an off-the-shelf study guide is the only thing being used. The key here? Even if a group does normally use a plug and play study, this very practical chapter will serve lots of leaders who want to lead their members to grow in Christ.

Part three of the Field Guide is all about the meeting itself. With preparation in place, this section includes a discussion of the art of leading a discussion, leading a well rounded meeting, and guidance on what to do when the meeting doesn’t go as planned.

Sam O’Neal has assembled a very good training resource for small group leaders who want to leverage the meeting to make a difference in the lives of members. It can be distributed to small group leaders in training or by small group champions looking for inspiration in building a training and development program. I like it and it’s a welcome addition to my resource library!

Debunking GroupLife Mythology

Mark Howell — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:50:34 +0000

Ever heard these truths?

You have to be a member of a group before you can lead a group.
Only closed small groups can develop genuine intimacy.
Coaching helps small group leaders develop better technique.
Healthy groups grow and birth.
Apprenticing is the best way to produce new leaders.

What do you think? Believe they’re true? Or could they be small group ministry old wives’ tales?

Like a lot of mythology, they have the appearance of truth. They seem reasonable. In some cases, they seem obvious. But are they true?

I think they’re only partly true at best. In fact, a couple of them are only barely connected with the truth. Here’s what I mean:

Do you have to be a member of a group before you can lead a group? No. This is an incorrect assumption and a very damaging one. Think about it. If 25% of your adult worship attendees (using the Easter number makes an even stronger case) are members of a group, what’s the likelihood that the best potential leaders are all already in a group? Slim. So for starters, if you have to be a member first, you’re starting with weaker genetic stock. In addition, there’s nothing to leading that can’t be developed on the fly. Especially if you’re using a curriculum that guides the discussion. Add in the feature of preferring that the leader fill their own group…and it’s nearly a slam dunk. This myth is busted.
Is there any truth to the idea that closed groups develop a deeper intimacy? None. In fact, studies have shown that open groups can be even more deeply connected.
Is coaching primarily about technique? No. In fact, coaching has very little to do with technique once a group has been together longer than about three to six months. This is the main reason that retroactively assigning coaches to existing groups has such a low success rate. So, if coaching isn’t about technique, what’s it about? It’s about care!
Do healthy groups really grow and birth? It sure sounds good on paper…but is it true? Think about your own efforts in this practice. What percentage of your groups have actually grown and successfully birthed a new group? In my experience, the most successful small group ministries are only able to identify a 30 to 40% success rate over the previous 2 years. Does that mean the other 60 to 70% of their groups are unhealthy? Maybe. But it’s more likely that growing and birthing is an indicator of something other than health.
Is apprenticing really the best way to launch new groups? Much like my previous answer, apprenticing is primarily a leadership development strategy (as opposed to a group multiplication strategy). When you evaluate your system, it’s very helpful to consider this great Andy Stanley line: “Your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you’re currently experiencing.” That said, it seems fair to ask, “If apprenticing is really the best way to launch groups, how’s it working? Are you multiplying fast enough to actually absorb the demand?

I’ve written on many of these topics in the past (my article Top 10 Axiomatic Beliefs of Group Life wrestles with many of these same ideas).

Want do you think? Have a question? Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Win the Soul Detox Church-Wide Campaign from Zondervan

Mark Howell — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:23:13 +0000

The contest is closed. We have a winner! Thanks everyone for playing. And thanks Zondervan for a great product and a great prize!

I am so excited about the best give-away I’ve ever offered! One of the very best church-wide campaigns I’ve come across in quite a while is Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World. New from Craig Groeschel and published by Zondervan, this is a great match of a fantastic communicator and great topic. I am always on the lookout for topics that are cross-cultural, that is they make sense to the friends, neighbors, family and co-workers, too. Soul Detox fits this bill perfectly! You can learn more about it right here.

To support the contest, Zondervan has put together a great offer! The winner will receive:

A Soul Detox Campaign Kit (a $100 value)
10 Soul Detox DVDs (a $270 value)
100 Soul Detox Participant Guides (a $1,099 value)

Seriously? That’s a $1,469 value!

You must do TWO (2) things. And you have to do both to win.

Use the comment section to tell me why you’d like to win. You can comment right here.
Tweet or Facebook the following line: “RT @MarkCHowell: Win a Soul Detox Church-Wide Campaign Kit by Craig Groeschel, a $1,470 value http://bit.ly/KKlAnk”

The contest ends on Tuesday, May 15th, at noon (PT). Thanks for playing!